Brian O’Doherty (b. 1928, Ireland, d. 2022, New York) led a remarkable and multifaceted career. After working and researching as a medical doctor, he relocated to the USA, where he hosted two television shows on art and culture. O’Doherty served as art critic for the New York Times and as editor of Art in America magazine. He edited and designed the groundbreaking “conceptual issue” of the multimedia magazine-in-a-box Aspen, as well as authored the seminal essay series Inside the White Cube. While part-time director of the NEA’s visual arts and media program, he helped make Soho a magnet for artists, coined the term “alternative space,” and championed early video art. From 1972 to 2008, he worked as an artist under the pseudonym Patrick Ireland. He has mounted over forty solo exhibitions and was the subject of several retrospectives; his most recent solo presentation was in 2018 at Sirius Art Centre, Cobh, Cork, where O’Doherty unveiled recently restored murals he had painted during an artist residency at the Art Centre 20 years prior as a permanent installation. O’Doherty is the author of several novels, including The Deposition of Father McGreevy (2000), which was nominated for the Booker Prize. His most recent novel, The Crossdresser’s Secret, was published by Sternberg Press in February 2014.
Brian O'Doherty - CV